Deposit return
Bin: Reverse vending machine or deposit binNot waste: return it and get your money back.
Nearly all plastic bottles and cans in the Netherlands carry a deposit. They do not belong in the PMD bin, let alone in residual waste: return them to the machine or the deposit bin on site and they go straight into the bottle-to-bottle route.
This belongs in it
- Small and large plastic bottles with the deposit logo
- Soft drink and energy drink cans with the deposit logo
- Beer bottles and crates with a deposit
- Empty, cap on, barcode readable
This does not belong in it
- Bottles without a deposit logo (those go in PMD)
- Juice and dairy cartons
- Dented cans — the machine cannot read them
- Bottles still full of drink
What happens to it?
- 1. Return it
Hand in the bottle or can at a reverse vending machine or the deposit bin on site. Leave the cap on and keep the barcode readable.
- 2. Deposit refunded
You get your deposit back — or donate it to a good cause through the organisation.
- 3. A pure stream
Because it contains nothing but bottles and cans, this is the cleanest plastic and metal stream there is.
- 4. Bottle-to-bottle
PET bottles are ground, washed and turned into new bottles; cans are melted down into new aluminium and steel.
Where is it processed?
Reverse vending machines and collection points of the national deposit system; processing at specialised PET and metal recyclers.
This is what it becomes
Good to know
Rules and legislation
The deposit on plastic bottles and cans up to and including 3 litres is laid down in the Dutch Packaging Management Decree. The Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate supervises it.
Sources
The figures and rules on this page were checked against the following sources.
- Statiegeld op plastic flesjes en blikjesInspectie Leefomgeving en Transport
- StatiegeldVerpact
Checked on 18 August 2026